They speak of them with a degree of awe, and hesitate to call them by their common name
(rimau or machang), terming them respectfully satwa (the wild animals), or even nenek
(ancestors), as really believing them such, or by way of soothing or coaxing them, as our
ignorant country folk call the fairies ‘the good people.’” [Dato’ hutan, “elder of the jungle,” is
the common title of the tiger in Selangor. Various nicknames, however, are given, e.g. Si
Pudong, “he of the hairy face” (Cliff., In Court and Kampong, p. 201), ’Pah Randau, “father
shaggy-face,” etc.] “When an European procures traps to be set ... the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood have been known to go at night to the place and practise some forms in order to
persuade the animal, when caught, or when he shall perceive the bait, that it was not laid by
them or with their consent. They talk of a place in the country where the tigers have a court,
and maintain a regular form of government, in towns, the houses of which are thatched with
women’s hair.”—Marsden, l.c. (The italics are mine.) It is curious that the Fairy Princess’ hall
on Gunong Ledang is similarly described in the Sĕjarah Malayu (Malay Annals, p. 279) as
being of bone and thatched with hair. ↑
81
Also called ’tas. The tiger is still supposed to be mortally afraid of los or ’tas wood. In fact, I
was more than once told of a trapped tiger who on being shown a piece of ’tas wood “became
quite silent,” though it had previously been savagely growling, and shrank into a corner of the
trap. A single inch of this wood is thought an adequate protection against any tiger. I do not
know what species of tree it belongs to, but a gorse stick (which I had bought some years
before in Ireland) was taken to be a piece of los wood, and was begged from me by a local
Malay headman, who cut it up into inches for distribution among his following. ↑
82
It appears that in Java there are supposed not only to be men who can themselves become
tigers at will, but men who can turn other people into tigers as well. This is done by means of a
species of sympathetic magic, the medicine-man drawing on a sarong (Malay skirt) of
marvellous elasticity, which at first will only cover his great toes, but which he is able
gradually to stretch until it covers his whole person. This sarong resembles the hide of a
Bengal tiger (being yellow with black stripes), and the wearing of it in conjunction with the
necessary charms will turn the required person into a tiger. ↑
83
Clifford, In Court and Kampong, pp. 65, 66. ↑
84
Malay Sketches, pp. 200, 201. ↑
85